I don't know if the principle has any official name, but I have heard it mentioned before. Tight-rope walkers start learning about two feet off the ground. It's pretty easy, actually, to walk a tight-rope two feet off the ground. When this is raised to four feet, it becomes harder. It
shouldn't be harder, but it is, because the stakes are higher. It is as if the mind triggers failure mechanisms in some perverse attempt to keep the body safe.
I remember sitting down with my mind-map sheet with a book on the American Revolution. Because I already have a B.A. in history and scored 100% on my High-School test on the subject over 10 years ago, I had a lot to prove to myself. I read the book in order to have a greater understanding of the American Revolution, the conditions that lead to it and the conditions it created. It took me a good Moment of Panic before I suddenly started making arches and branches. One word was all it took to trigger a flood of associations, but that first word was rather constipated.
Permission to fail is related to success.
